A laptime close to breaking into the 5-minute range is absolutely insane:

Originally Posted by Volkswagen Motorsport

6:05.336 minutes! The fully-electric Volkswagen ID.R lapped the Nürburgring-Nordschleife faster than any electric vehicle has done before, beating the previous record by 40.564 seconds. Another milestone in electro-mobility

Not to mention they crushed the old record by over 40 seconds!

Obviously as the car was not doing a hill climb event they changed the aerodynamics to better fit the Nurburgring and modified the braking regeneration effect.

There is no video of the lap posted yet as Volkswagen is no doubt hard at work editing it for promotional purposes which they certainly earned.

Congratulations to Volkswagen on a tremendous achievement!

Jun 3, 2019

- 6:05.336 minutes – the Volkswagen ID.R has driven the fastest emission-free lap of all time on the most difficult race track in the world

- Following the record on Pikes Peak and the e-record in Goodwood, this is the third record for the ID.R

Wolfsburg — Volkswagen has achieved another milestone in electro-mobility: The ID.R, powered by two electric motors, lapped the Nürburgring-Nordschleife in 6:05.336 minutes – faster than any electric vehicle before it. Romain Dumas (F) beat the previous record set by Peter Dumbreck (GB, NIO EP9) in 2017 by 40.564 seconds. With an average speed of 206.96 km/h, the ID.R once again underlined the impressive performance capabilities of Volkswagen’s electric drive. This 500 kW (680 PS) emission-free race car is the racing flagship of the future fully electric ID. product family from Volkswagen.

“The Nordschleife of the Nürburgring is not only the world’s most demanding race track, it is also the ultimate test for production vehicles,” says Herbert Diess, Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen Group. “The ID.R has mastered this challenge with great distinction and has completed the fastest emission-free lap of all time. As further proof of its impressive performance capabilities, Volkswagen’s e-mobility can now proudly call itself ‘Nürburgring-approved’. I congratulate the team from Volkswagen Motorsport and driver Romain Dumas on the third record for the ID.R.”

Within just twelve months, Volkswagen Motorsport has already set three track records with the ID.R. On June 24, 2018, Romain Dumas achieved the absolute track record of 7:57.148 minutes at the renowned Pikes Peak International Hill Climb (USA). Just three weeks later, he achieved a new best time for electric cars of 43.86 seconds at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in southern England. The new record on the legendary Nordschleife has now been added to this successful run.

For Romain Dumas, who is a four-time winner of the 24-hour race at the Nürburgring, the record lap with the ID.R is another highlight on his favorite track. “To be a record-holder on the Nordschleife makes me unbelievably proud,” says Dumas. “For me, this is the best and most difficult race track in the world. I want to thank the team at Volkswagen Motorsport, who have once again done a fantastic job. The ID.R was perfectly prepared for the Nordschleife and it was so much fun to experience the blistering acceleration and rapid cornering speeds.”

With the e-record on the Nordschleife, Volkswagen has once again demonstrated the performance capabilities that come with electric mobility. “This impressive success story is the result of meticulous preparation by our engineers, the flawless work by the whole team during testing and of course a perfect driving performance by Romain Dumas,” says Volkswagen Motorsport Director Sven Smeets.

To prepare for the Nürburgring Nordschleife challenge, Volkswagen Motorsport gave the ID.R a complete makeover compared to the record outings on Pikes Peak and in Goodwood in just five months. “For this evolved version of the ID.R, the aerodynamic configuration was more strongly adapted to the highest possible speed, rather than maximum downforce,” explains François-Xavier Demaison, Technical Director. “With extensive test laps in the simulator and on the race track, we adapted the ID.R to the unique conditions of the Nordschleife, focussing mainly on chassis tuning, energy management and optimal choice of tyres for the record attempt.”

Honestly, I’m not the biggest fan of electric cars. But if they keep up this rate of evolution/improvement, we’re going to see 4 minute Ring times from EVs before too long.

With that said it appears they still have a way to go. At the end of the lap down the Dottinger Hohe it tops out at 243kph and loses quite a bit of speed going uphill. This is versus top speeds of 273kph towards the start, and even that appeared to be limited. It was running out of power. There’s likely a sub-6 min lap in that car right now. Crazy.

Honestly, I’m not the biggest fan of electric cars. But if they keep up this rate of evolution/improvement, we’re going to see 4 minute Ring times from EVs before too long.

With that said it appears they still have a way to go. At the end of the lap down the Dottinger Hohe it tops out at 243kph and loses quite a bit of speed going uphill. This is versus top speeds of 273kph towards the start, and even that appeared to be limited. It was running out of power. There’s likely a sub-6 min lap in that car right now. Crazy.

But listening to that high-pitched wail is tough for that long.

They will get so fast as to be human limited.

We already approaching a point where cars are getting incredibly fast but far less involving. Do they get better to drive for every second you chop off? Not really.

It will be interesting to see if a niche is carved out for slower, manual, and more driver involved cars going forward.

Kind of. Eventually rather than a driver you will have cars so fast that humans will not be able to handle it (like where planes are at) and it will come down to the programming and hardware to see how fast you can get it around the track.